During some laparoscopic surgical procedures, such as the sleeve gastrectomy, laparoscopic staplers are used to staple layers of tissue together. The manufacturers of the staplers provide different staple load sizes for varying tissue thicknesses. However, there are no generally acceptable instruments to measure the tissue thickness. Therefore, the surgeons currently have to rely on anatomy and or “feel” to choose the correct staple load. This creates an increased risk of bleeding and staple line leak.
The patent literature includes various devices for measuring the thickness of tissue within the body of a being. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,908 (Gerry), U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,521 (Granger), and U.S. Pat. No. 8,893,946 (Boudreaux et al.). While such prior art devices may be generally suitable for their intended purposes, they leave much to be desired from various standpoints, such a simplicity of construction, ease of use, cost, etc. Thus a need exists for an instrument which is simple in construction, low in cost, easy to use and which will effectively measure the thickness of tissue within the body of a being. The subject invention addresses those needs.
All references cited and/or identified herein are specifically incorporated by reference herein.